Monday, February 3, 2014

In September 2013, my husband and I were lucky enough to attend Salvage: A Hacker Farm Field Trip in rural Somerset, where we enjoyed live performances by Kemper Norton, Ix Tab and Hacker Farm themselves. As this was a multimedia event, there was also an indoor area where films were shown, and we were gobsmacked by The Future Is Not What It Used To Be (2004; d. Mika Taanila), a profile of Finnish electronic music pioneer Erkki Kureniemmi that includes several excerpts of vintage films scored by Kureniemmi. I've since secured my own copy of the film (thanks to my generous husband, who secretly ordered it for me when we were still abroad), and I have made a few screenshots of some its stunning visuals.

From Computers at Our Service (1968), directed by Risto Jarva, music by Erkki Kureniemmi

From miscellaneous others:

Footage from the FeelIt exhibition, Stockholm, 1968

Frozen Foods (1969), d. Risto Jarva, music by Kureniemmi

From Electronic Quartet (1968)

From Electronic Quartet (1968)

From Electronic Quartet (1968)

From Sex Show (1971)

From Sex Show (1971)

From Dimi-O (1971)

From Dimi Ballet (1971), featuring dancer Riita Vainio

From Dimi Ballet (1971), featuring dancer Riita Vainio

And from Dimi-S (1972), where participants created music by touching one another:

Beyond the stunning vintage visuals, the film is fascinating look at Kureniemmi's unique ideas and his current lifestyle (in which he documents the minutiae of his daily existence in a stream-of-consciousness digital diary). Recommended viewing!